Visual Design of Real-Time Screen Scores

Abstract

The author examines visual design considerations in the development of real-time screen scores. Such scores are shown to lend themselves particularly well to the representation of non-linear musical processes and the articulation of non-linear musical forms. The author argues that the foregrounding of such scores, through their projection for an audience and meticulous design, draws especial attention to the manner in which such non-linear processes are represented and in turn decoded by performers. While the transparency of the decoding process is shown to vary across a wide spectrum, the central role of the notational schema in works such as these is shown to align them in many ways with a broader interface aesthetics, promoting rich fields of creative and artistic enquiry.

Power, agency, deference and difference Examining the politics of composer–performer relationships in the wake of recent innovations

“…Technologies are currently being explored that include performer-tocomputer feedback systems (Eigenfeldt, 2012;Kim-Boyle, 2014). Pieces have been written that allow for explicit decision-making on the part of performers and/or audiences as well as composers, through feedback systems or open notation (Freeman, 2008, pp.…”

“…Pieces have been written that allow for explicit decision-making on the part of performers and/or audiences as well as composers, through feedback systems or open notation (Freeman, 2008, pp. 27-34;Kim-Boyle, 2014). Duo for Pianists II, Unity Capsule and Schwer… unheimlich Schwer all demonstrate the political potency of notational innovation, for better or worse.…”

Reframing the Listening Experience Through the Projected Score

“…While page turns are somewhat of an anachronism in projected scores, the constrained spatial area of a display has seen composers adopt a range of animation techniques in order to present performers with new musical information [5]. Cat Hope's screen scores, for example, often employ scrolling techniques to display new information to an ensemble, directly correlating the display methodology to the drone-based forms that underscore much of her work.…”

“…While color certainly has a functional role in helping distinguish the white lines from the background image, it also has a fundamental aesthetic value in drawing attention to concepts of stasis and becoming. 5 The musical processes denoted by the projected score are clearly conditioned by these and various other principles of visual design and organisation. And while the ability of the projected score to contribute to a deep structural understanding of a work may be open to conjecture [7,8,9], the foregrounded score nevertheless invites the listener to enter into a decoding process to support a better understanding of the musical and performance processes underlying the work itself.…”

“…This is not to suggest that color has not been used in paper-based scores, refer for example to the use of color in the 14 th century Ars Subtilior as a means of clarifying complex mensural division 5. Personal communication with the composer 6.…”